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She could also go to Brixham. She has been further away than that, in her life!

I was standing on Norada's foredeck with the sun on my phone screen could not see a thing. Had a look over Ardea when we got back, certainly a big old ship. Yes 4G on river Ant, never thought I would see the day.

1

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I have so much footage to share of the big out of the water works, but not being home with my big editing computer I just have not been able to edit and upload this yet. However, here is something I did tonight - sorting the rusty bottom of my fridge out.

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I too had an adventure defrosting my fridge at home yesterday, over time it had built up a considerable thickness of ice - nearly 3" thick at the top, and this was restricting what we could fit into the fridge. now in the past this has been a time consuming job to remove, as you either turn it off and leave it with a bowl to defrost (all day), or you get in there with scrapers and things and try and crack the ice off in small chunks (hours of work) this time my thoughts turned to mechanical aids - yes I thought, having just bought a 20m extension air hose, I could now reach with a small air chisel (normally used to break up concrete , brickwork, or remove rust from thick steel) and attack the ice with that.

Well I am glad to say it works, with care, no damage was caused to the fridge, and the ice was all removed in 15 minutes, then the big problem, I had filled the sink with blocks of ice, and the downstairs toilet and wash basin. yes, it took hours before everything was clear and defrosted, but once again I had a fridge with its full storage capacity.

I dont think I would use this method on the freezer though as the cooling coils form the shelves, it would be too easy to slip and damage them.

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With Robins last YouTube update which involving a hair dryer that was removed rather quickly, it makes me wonder if he is losing interest or his mojo? ﻿

The video was done simply to share here, and nowhere else. When I uploaded it however I accidentally made it public. This is why it was removed off the main you tube channel page.

As to videos generally, I have been concentrating on all sorts of things away from them - and I feel a lot better for it. For example, when I was on Trixie over the summer and spent two days mud weighted on Barton Broad this was a new experience and something I would never have done previously (boring video) and also because you are eager to get on and go somewhere to recorded more video and so over time the video element becomes the ruling factor - not good.

This year I met with Russell (The Admiral) who was filming his latest adventure, and like me was ever conscious of what had been filmed, what he could film and so on and showed once more how the whole You Tube circus can sweep you away.

However, there are other reasons besides. Firstly that I have such limited connectivity on the Broads - its fine for the odd video upload from my phones, or going online but noway is it suitable to upload several gigabytes of data that a fully edited video takes up - and then there is the editing, all this lives on my powerful desktop computer but that is not with me and languishes in London still in my storage space (flat) that hopefully will be sorted come mid November. But even with the flat gone, there is nowhere I can put and use such a large bit of kit on Indy.

So it is a trick situation, but also in my time away from the videos, I have seen how there is room for some new originality to come back, and so there will be new content coming in due course.

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It has been some time hasn't it? Well time for a little update - here is the long awaited video of when Independence was lifted back in the summer and Charlie and I spent just 4 days to complete all the works both inside and out. David Emms popped down and pulled out all the stops to compound and polish the entire hull in a day and of course thanks to this Forum when Nigel, Steve and John popped down to help crew her to Lowestoft and our very own JennyMorgan for taking people back to their cars in Brundall.

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So, 'Indy' has been a bit chilly of late, this is down to the fact her Eberspacher D5 warm air heater decided to pack up about two weeks ago. It randomly began to shut itself down suddenly (no cool down cycle) one moment it would be running, the next it would not. Upon re-start it would run perfectly fine again until it again would just 'turn off'. I began to ,measure the time it took and every time was no less than 20 minutes but no more than 25 minutes before this would happen.

I got online and downloaded a service manual for it along with some very helpful tips from a Canal Boat Forum with how to check and clear fault codes. My unit had two 'historical' fault codes. One for a miss match between the inlet and exhaust temp and another to do with the fuel. Having cleared these the heater continued to shut down, but displayed no new fault codes.

I made some calls and found Panks were the local agents for Eberspacher. They could not help explain why the heater might be doing what it was, but were certain it would be throwing up a fault code and their gear would show it and they would be able to get to the bottom of the issue. The next issue was would they do any repair under the warranty? They asked me to send over copies of the documents I had after Espar in Plymouth (also main Eberspacher agents) supply and fit the heater.

A couple of hours later I had a call back from Panks with some bad news. They could not help me under warranty because the certificate of installation had not been completed, some of the documents i had in my possession I as the customer should not have because Esper should have sent them to Eberspacher for warranty registration and so it would have to be a 'paid for job'. I was very unhappy - not initially with Panks, but with Esper. I was the customer who had gone to a main agent to buy the heater and have them install it and at a cost of close on £5,000.00 you;d have expected them to have done a good job and the supplied heater to not pack up within a year of fitment.

Panks then agreed they would at least have a look and take up the issue of the warranty further with Eberspacher - they however could not collect the heater form the boat. I did not want to go removing it and then Eberspacher (or anyone else) accuse me at a later date of having done something that exacerbated an existing problem or caused one. I therefore got in touch with NYA who soon came to remove the heater - this also meant it went on the van to Panks later that day.

Days past...But that is the Norfolk way, but after a week of no new I got in touch with Panks who told me they were having issues with Eberspacher and the warranty still. Also Eberspacher claimed that if the heater had done over 1,200Hrs in the first year and had not been serviced within that period by a main agent the warranty was void. I then got hold of a contact at Eberspacher UK and copied them into an email I also sent to Panks. You see what everyone had forgotten was the unit was under 12 months old, I had not been told verbally by Esper and had nothing in writing that stipulated I had to have the heater serviced by a main agent in the first year of within 1,200Hrs of use to keep the 3 year warranty. Furthermore, since the until as under 12 months old since fitting, it still had the original manufacturers 12 month warranty and frankly if something costing as much as this failed within a year when it might be reasonably expected to last longer than a year in use - I would have a strong case under my consumer rights.

Less than 24hrs later I was called to say they were going to honour the warranty (funny that) but there was some bad news...The heater was working fine. It had no fault codes and they could not get it to fail as it had been when on the boat. The issue was they would not take the unit apart in case they they caused an issue! In short, no fault code = no investigation. They did however tell me the heater had operated for just under 800Hrs.

Of course this leaves the question, what if it fails once it is fitted on the boat? Since all the system, wiring and so on was all put in by Esper if it is any of this or the Controller at fault Panks won't come to the boat and work on it for nothing (travel is not included as 'labour and parts within the warranty) so then will Esper drive up from Plymouth to look at it? Let's not think that far down the road for now...

They also said that in order to retain my warranty they would have to service the unit - I asked how they could do this at the same time as not opening up the unit? Urm, well actually servicing the unit only requires the replacement of the glow plug and mesh screen - this does not require the unit to be opened up to do. They quoted me an hours labour plus VAT for this along with the cost of the Glow-plug and mesh. I have politely declined saying I have more than a month before the 12 months is up, or 500 more hours use before these work needs to be carried out. I will get the glow plug myself along with the mesh and replace this - Eberspacher say they would be happy with 'reasonable evidence' this has been done such as an invoice showing original parts have been bought and a photo showing they are fitted.

Seriously, I have never heard anyone, anywhere have this sort of issue (and I am not on a downer over this) but if it going to happen, then it will be me who it happens to lol. In the meantime I wish I had waited until the boat had been brought up to Norfolk and then had JPC supply and fit a Webasto knowing they are local and happy to come visit the boat and in my dealings with them seem very helpful and decent people.

My original idea of using a Diesel fired hot water heater has now come back to my mind - this would effectively heat up the closed-circuit water system that the air conditioning system uses, and which is fed through the Air Handlers. I have got from Germany the original service documents for the system, and from this coded the system to operate the air handlers in fan only mode. By having a small section of pl;plumbing which has isolator valves (by passing the heat exchanger in the compressor driven chillers) I can divert the water flow through a Diesel water heater this is then pumped around the boat through and thus into and out of the matrix boxes in the air handlers - I have 6 air handlers onboard. This would create a true 'central heating' system with no additional pipe work or units required, and because the system can have from new a Diesel fired water heater it is not some 'Heath Robinson' idea. But before any of this can NYA have a new list of works to come for the Spring.

Some of this will be to work on the existing chiller system which throws a pressure fault code if all handlers are used at once. Other issues will be the removal of the hydraulic take off pump from the starboard engine to investigate the hydraulic oil leak this has had since purchase (it leaks about 150ml of oil every 3 months) but is getting everywhere and I am tired of mopping it up. It is suspected a new gasket is all that will be required and not a pump-rebuild. Supply 4 new 230Ah Batteries and 2 new 110ah Batteries (I like the 5 year guarantee they get and the ones supplied fro Trixie are great) find out why I am leaking coolant from around a new valve fitted earlier last year that leads off to the hot water tank, once and for all solve the water pressure and flow issues, replace some hoses on the port engine and for the water intakes to the air conditioning chillers for preventative maintenance and finally re-spray paint both engines which means I can then get on with re-painting the bilges in white and thus make the engine room look a lot nicer and fresher than it is currently.

Then it will be some re-painting of non-slip on the decks, dealing with the Teak decks on the bow, all new seat coverings and a new sun-deck canopy. Not much then eh?

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So, 'Indy' has been a bit chilly of late, this is down to the fact her Eberspacher D5 warm air heater decided to pack up about two weeks ago. It randomly began to shut itself down suddenly (no cool down cycle) one moment it would be running, the next it would not. Upon re-start it would run perfectly fine again until it again would just 'turn off'. I began to ,measure the time it took and every time was no less than 20 minutes but no more than 25 minutes before this would happen.

I got online and downloaded a service manual for it along with some very helpful tips from a Canal Boat Forum with how to check and clear fault codes. My unit had two 'historical' fault codes. One for a miss match between the inlet and exhaust temp and another to do with the fuel. Having cleared these the heater continued to shut down, but displayed no new fault codes.

I made some calls and found Panks were the local agents for Eberspacher. They could not help explain why the heater might be doing what it was, but were certain it would be throwing up a fault code and their gear would show it and they would be able to get to the bottom of the issue. The next issue was would they do any repair under the warranty? They asked me to send over copies of the documents I had after Espar in Plymouth (also main Eberspacher agents) supply and fit the heater.

A couple of hours later I had a call back from Panks with some bad news. They could not help me under warranty because the certificate of installation had not been completed, some of the documents i had in my possession I as the customer should not have because Esper should have sent them to Eberspacher for warranty registration and so it would have to be a 'paid for job'. I was very unhappy - not initially with Panks, but with Esper. I was the customer who had gone to a main agent to buy the heater and have them install it and at a cost of close on £5,000.00 you;d have expected them to have done a good job and the supplied heater to not pack up within a year of fitment.

Panks then agreed they would at least have a look and take up the issue of the warranty further with Eberspacher - they however could not collect the heater form the boat. I did not want to go removing it and then Eberspacher (or anyone else) accuse me at a later date of having done something that exacerbated an existing problem or caused one. I therefore got in touch with NYA who soon came to remove the heater - this also meant it went on the van to Panks later that day.

Days past...But that is the Norfolk way, but after a week of no new I got in touch with Panks who told me they were having issues with Eberspacher and the warranty still. Also Eberspacher claimed that if the heater had done over 1,200Hrs in the first year and had not been serviced within that period by a main agent the warranty was void. I then got hold of a contact at Eberspacher UK and copied them into an email I also sent to Panks. You see what everyone had forgotten was the unit was under 12 months old, I had not been told verbally by Esper and had nothing in writing that stipulated I had to have the heater serviced by a main agent in the first year of within 1,200Hrs of use to keep the 3 year warranty. Furthermore, since the until as under 12 months old since fitting, it still had the original manufacturers 12 month warranty and frankly if something costing as much as this failed within a year when it might be reasonably expected to last longer than a year in use - I would have a strong case under my consumer rights.

Less than 24hrs later I was called to say they were going to honour the warranty (funny that) but there was some bad news...The heater was working fine. It had no fault codes and they could not get it to fail as it had been when on the boat. The issue was they would not take the unit apart in case they they caused an issue! In short, no fault code = no investigation. They did however tell me the heater had operated for just under 800Hrs.

Of course this leaves the question, what if it fails once it is fitted on the boat? Since all the system, wiring and so on was all put in by Esper if it is any of this or the Controller at fault Panks won't come to the boat and work on it for nothing (travel is not included as 'labour and parts within the warranty) so then will Esper drive up from Plymouth to look at it? Let's not think that far down the road for now...

They also said that in order to retain my warranty they would have to service the unit - I asked how they could do this at the same time as not opening up the unit? Urm, well actually servicing the unit only requires the replacement of the glow plug and mesh screen - this does not require the unit to be opened up to do. They quoted me an hours labour plus VAT for this along with the cost of the Glow-plug and mesh. I have politely declined saying I have more than a month before the 12 months is up, or 500 more hours use before these work needs to be carried out. I will get the glow plug myself along with the mesh and replace this - Eberspacher say they would be happy with 'reasonable evidence' this has been done such as an invoice showing original parts have been bought and a photo showing they are fitted.

Seriously, I have never heard anyone, anywhere have this sort of issue (and I am not on a downer over this) but if it going to happen, then it will be me who it happens to lol. In the meantime I wish I had waited until the boat had been brought up to Norfolk and then had JPC supply and fit a Webasto knowing they are local and happy to come visit the boat and in my dealings with them seem very helpful and decent people.

My original idea of using a Diesel fired hot water heater has now come back to my mind - this would effectively heat up the closed-circuit water system that the air conditioning system uses, and which is fed through the Air Handlers. I have got from Germany the original service documents for the system, and from this coded the system to operate the air handlers in fan only mode. By having a small section of pl;plumbing which has isolator valves (by passing the heat exchanger in the compressor driven chillers) I can divert the water flow through a Diesel water heater this is then pumped around the boat through and thus into and out of the matrix boxes in the air handlers - I have 6 air handlers onboard. This would create a true 'central heating' system with no additional pipe work or units required, and because the system can have from new a Diesel fired water heater it is not some 'Heath Robinson' idea. But before any of this can NYA have a new list of works to come for the Spring.

Some of this will be to work on the existing chiller system which throws a pressure fault code if all handlers are used at once. Other issues will be the removal of the hydraulic take off pump from the starboard engine to investigate the hydraulic oil leak this has had since purchase (it leaks about 150ml of oil every 3 months) but is getting everywhere and I am tired of mopping it up. It is suspected a new gasket is all that will be required and not a pump-rebuild. Supply 4 new 230Ah Batteries and 2 new 110ah Batteries (I like the 5 year guarantee they get and the ones supplied fro Trixie are great) find out why I am leaking coolant from around a new valve fitted earlier last year that leads off to the hot water tank, once and for all solve the water pressure and flow issues, replace some hoses on the port engine and for the water intakes to the air conditioning chillers for preventative maintenance and finally re-spray paint both engines which means I can then get on with re-painting the bilges in white and thus make the engine room look a lot nicer and fresher than it is currently.

Then it will be some re-painting of non-slip on the decks, dealing with the Teak decks on the bow, all new seat coverings and a new sun-deck canopy. Not much then eh?

You really can't make this stuff up!

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So, 'Indy' has been a bit chilly of late, this is down to the fact her Eberspacher D5 warm air heater decided to pack up about two weeks ago. It randomly began to shut itself down suddenly (no cool down cycle) one moment it would be running, the next it would not. Upon re-start it would run perfectly fine again until it again would just 'turn off'. I began to ,measure the time it took and every time was no less than 20 minutes but no more than 25 minutes before this would happen.

I got online and downloaded a service manual for it along with some very helpful tips from a Canal Boat Forum with how to check and clear fault codes. My unit had two 'historical' fault codes. One for a miss match between the inlet and exhaust temp and another to do with the fuel. Having cleared these the heater continued to shut down, but displayed no new fault codes.

I made some calls and found Panks were the local agents for Eberspacher. They could not help explain why the heater might be doing what it was, but were certain it would be throwing up a fault code and their gear would show it and they would be able to get to the bottom of the issue. The next issue was would they do any repair under the warranty? They asked me to send over copies of the documents I had after Espar in Plymouth (also main Eberspacher agents) supply and fit the heater.

A couple of hours later I had a call back from Panks with some bad news. They could not help me under warranty because the certificate of installation had not been completed, some of the documents i had in my possession I as the customer should not have because Esper should have sent them to Eberspacher for warranty registration and so it would have to be a 'paid for job'. I was very unhappy - not initially with Panks, but with Esper. I was the customer who had gone to a main agent to buy the heater and have them install it and at a cost of close on £5,000.00 you;d have expected them to have done a good job and the supplied heater to not pack up within a year of fitment.

Panks then agreed they would at least have a look and take up the issue of the warranty further with Eberspacher - they however could not collect the heater form the boat. I did not want to go removing it and then Eberspacher (or anyone else) accuse me at a later date of having done something that exacerbated an existing problem or caused one. I therefore got in touch with NYA who soon came to remove the heater - this also meant it went on the van to Panks later that day.

Days past...But that is the Norfolk way, but after a week of no new I got in touch with Panks who told me they were having issues with Eberspacher and the warranty still. Also Eberspacher claimed that if the heater had done over 1,200Hrs in the first year and had not been serviced within that period by a main agent the warranty was void. I then got hold of a contact at Eberspacher UK and copied them into an email I also sent to Panks. You see what everyone had forgotten was the unit was under 12 months old, I had not been told verbally by Esper and had nothing in writing that stipulated I had to have the heater serviced by a main agent in the first year of within 1,200Hrs of use to keep the 3 year warranty. Furthermore, since the until as under 12 months old since fitting, it still had the original manufacturers 12 month warranty and frankly if something costing as much as this failed within a year when it might be reasonably expected to last longer than a year in use - I would have a strong case under my consumer rights.

About time to write a missive to Esper. Threaten them with The Small Claims Court. tell them you are going to get the whole of their installation inspected and any faults that need repairing, including the awful job they did on the ducting. Will be billed to them, if they do not pay this in full you will take them to TSCC (Up to £10,000) for loss of the three year warranty and any future expense you may incur in those two years left through their incompetence.

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The modern Eberspacher and Webasto blown air heaters, these days, are factory sealed and cannot be serviced or repaired by you, or the local boatyard. If they go wrong, you have to send them back to the factory. On the contrary, they are very reliable and if they break down it will be because of an "external" problem. There will be one of three reasons :

1/. Fuel supply. it may have enough fuel to start it, but if there is not sufficient flow, or a filter blockage, it will trip out a few minutes after starting.

2/. Electric current. If the wiring has not been installed properly, and there is too much volt drop in the circuit - same symptoms as (1) above.

3/. The most likely.

These units are "room sealed" which means they draw their combustion air from outside the boat and their exhaust also passes to outside. So you have no problems with CO2 or CO in the boat, and no condensation. This is done by the same pipework, which has an inner and outer tube, all going to the same hull skin fitting. This is exactly the same method that you will find on the gas or oil fired central heating in your house. If the intake of combustion air is being stifled, then the O2 sensor in the unit will trip it out after a couple of minutes. This can be caused by a bad installation, where the pipe goes round too many bends and/or is a longer run than the manufacturer's specifications.

It can also be the simple matter that the skin fitting has rubbed up against an earth bank and got partially blocked or there could even be a spider's nest or small bird's nest in the intake pipe. Don't laugh - I have seen this often! You probably haven't used this heater for a long time, all summer.

It could also be simply that the skin fitting on the hull is moored too close to the bank and is being stifled.